The number of networked electronic devices such as consumer electronics (CE) devices in home networks is on the rise and so is the amount of data stored therein. Consumers store and access several types of content (e.g., movies, photos, broadcast television (TV), cable TV programs) on/via such devices in their home networks. Further, the amount of information available on the Internet via the World Wide Web is on the rise.
Given the large amount of data/information available on a home network and on the Internet, it is very likely that consumers (users) can find extensive information on the Internet related to at least a portion of the data stored on their home devices. Moreover, many users are as interested in accessing information on the Internet as they are in accessing data on their home networks. As such, there have been attempts at providing information of interest to users.
Some existing approaches do enable display of commercial information on a TV screen, next to or in the place of, an ongoing TV program. However, this leads to disruption in viewing the TV program. There is, therefore, a need for providing information of interest to a user without disrupting content being accessed by the user.